Doll
by incestly
Summary: Steven's trying to find a keepsake from his mom's house after her death. He finds the extremely tiny Spinel. (Macro/Micro AU. For Day Five of Stevinel Month. Prompt was: Doll.)


Steven doesn't attend his mother's funeral; they were never close, so why would he? His dad had dropped him off at her house, giving a soft smile before driving off. He was supposed to go into the house to trifle through her stuff, to find anything he wanted to take with him. Steven doesn't expect to find anything. Why would he? His mother didn't care enough to visit him, so why would she leave anything for him?

Steven had been scrounching around in every corner, in every drawer, but nothing. Just as he thought. His mom didn't care about him. So what? It doesn't matt-

As Steven opens the door to the next room, he can help but be speechless. Because it's covered with. With...dolls.

Not big ones or anything. Miniatures. They littered the room, taking up every space, in every corner. It freaked Steven out a bit, seeing all there unmoving faces just...staring at him. He carefully steps into the room, making sure not to step anything fragile-looking.

He's giving brief glances at each of the tables, nothing catching his eyes until he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. God, he hopes it isn't a rat.

Suddenly, he feels a small tug on his jacket. Steven turns in the direction of it, and he's faced with the sight of-

A person. A very, very tiny person. So of course, Steven has the best reaction.

He screams.

"Hey, hey! Stop screaming, jeez!" It talks. _It_ _talks. _If this is how it calms people down, it's doing a horrible job right now. "Please? I'll explain everythin' if ya just. Stop. Screaming." Steven has to bite his lip hard to stop himself from letting another scream, and he swore he felt blood trickle down, but then again, maybe that's just in his head.

The tiny person lets out a breath of relief, before walking a bit closer to Steven. And now that he's done panicking, he can get a good look at the person in front of him. Besides her small stature, she has pink twintails, hanging down depressingly off the side of her head. She's pale, and she's wearing a pink jester-like outfit. She's strange, but it comes off in a good way.

"I'm Spinel, nice to meetcha!" She does a little bow as she says it, smiling brightly when she comes back up. Steven decides she's undeniably cute. "And who are you?"

"Oh! I'm Steven. Steven Universe." Spinel freezes at that, uncomfortable now. "What?"

"I. You're Pink's son, right?" It's Steven's turn to freeze now, chewing on his lip again.

"How did you…?"

"She talked about you. A lot. She really missed you, you know." Steven glares at the floor, hoping it would open up and swallow him alive. Because. His mom didn't care. She never did. If she did, she wouldn't have left him alone with his dad. She would've visited, at the least. But no. His mom decided that she'd rather be alone with her dolls than to take care of her son.

"Steven, hey-" Steven looks up, and wait, when did he start crying? Now that he's come back to reality, he can feel himself begin to cry even more. This was a bit embrassing, breaking down in front of a stranger.

Spinel heels dig a bit into his shoulder as she jumps on it, before plopping down cross-legged. She reaches out, stroking out his face gently.

"I. Don't really know all the details, but. All I know is, Pink's done some terrible things. And. And she didn't want you to be involved. She decided her problems were her burden to carry by herself, ya know?" Steven sniffles, closing his eyes slowly and nuzzling against Spinel's hand. "She didn't hate you, Steven. She just thought she was doing what she thought was best, even if she was wrong." Steven's stopped crying at this point, and he feels exhausted, mostly because he hasn't cried like that in awhile. Spinel smiles at him sweetly, scooting a up a little bit so her feet hang off of Steven's shoulder.

"Actually, I have a question."

"Hmm?"

"How do you know my mom anyway?" Spinel lets out a laugh, kicking her legs a little.

"She caught me stealing some of her sugar once." Steven snorts at that, and kicks Steven with her heel. It tickled. "I told her I needed a place to stay, and she let me live in her walls." Steven hums at that, until he makes a realization.

"Where are you going to live, now that she's gone?" Spinel thinks on it for a second, before shrugging.

"Back on the road, I guess? I'm not sure beyond that." Steven didn't want to imagine it; Spinel out there, going days without food, without shelter. He wasn't going to let it happen. He cups his hands together, and then nudging his head towards. Spinel gets the jest immediately, jumping into Steven's hands.

"How about you come live with me?" Spinel looks a bit shocked, and bits her lip.

"I couldn't-"

"Spinel. I don't mind. Really."

Before he could react, Spinel leans up and kisses the end of his nose.

"Thank you." Both of them are surprised by the sound of honking outside, and Steven realizes it's his dad. Steven gently stores Spinel in his pocket.

"You going to be okay in there?" Spinel peaks out and gives a thumbs up, and Steven gives one back, and then they're heading out.

When Steven jumps into the car beside his dad, closing the door behind him, he gets a pat on the shoulder and asks, "Find anything you want to keep in there?"

Steven glances down at his pocket, smiling softly.

"Yeah, I think I did."

"Yeah, I think I did."


End file.
